PCG Financed Food Co-Operative Successfully Completes Expansion

Common Ground staff and community members cutting the ribbon to celebrate the grand opening of the newly expanded co-op.
Common Ground staff and community members cutting the ribbon to celebrate the grand opening of the newly expanded co-op.
Monday, April 22, 2013

Common Ground Food Co-op is a cooperatively owned grocery store located in the Champaign-Urbana region of Illinois that promotes local and organic food production, fosters conscious consumerism, and builds community. The Co-op was started 37 years ago in a church basement by community members who wanted to see their low-income neighbors have access to healthy food. Now it is owned by 4,700 community members in the Champaign-Urbana region.

In 2011, Partners for the Common Good made a combined $800,000 loan with the Northcountry Cooperative Development Fund to help finance the expansion of the Co-op to better serve its customers, farmers, and community members. With additional financing of $1 million from community owners, in February of 2013 Common Ground successfully completed its expansion, more than doubling its size and re-opening with an expanded kitchen and brand new educational classroom.

As Jacqueline Hannah, General Manager for Common Ground, says, “Common Ground's recently completed expansion was taken on to grow its ability to meet the desire of the community to have more food options and to support more local farms while shopping for their grocery needs, but it was also taken on because we knew it would vastly multiply our ability to make an impact on our mission. In 2007, Common Ground was offering a single gardening class per year as its one educational offering. The 2012 expansion, with the Flatlander Teaching Kitchen opening inside Common Ground, has made it possible for the Co-op to offer a dozen educational classes per month, and we expect to see close to 1,000 learners come through those teaching kitchen doors within the classroom's first year of existence. By meeting our need for fresh, healthy food at a store we collectively own, we are making so much more possible.”

In addition to serving its local community, Common Ground has been at the forefront of efforts to educate the public about organic standards, fair trade, genetically-modified foods, and other issues related to healthy foods and food sustainability. One example of the impact the expansion has already had is Triple S Farms, a small family-owned farm located in Stewardson, Illinois. Triple S Farms began selling its hormone- and antibiotic-free meat with the Co-op six years ago, even purchasing a chest freezer for the Co-op so it could store and sell the locally raised meat.

“The Common Ground expansion is a major part of the long term expansion here at Triple S Farms. I consider us partners in the local food movement; we both need each other, farmer and retailer. The growth of Common Ground is one of the main reasons that my son Ryan can return to the farm and join me, which has been my lifelong dream,” said Stan Schutte, founder and owner of Triple S Farms.

PCG is proud to have invested in Common Ground. “Promoting healthy communities is an important part of PCG’s efforts. Common Ground provides an excellent model of a local initiative to bring healthy food choices to underserved communities,” said Partners for the Common Good CEO Jeannine Jacokes.

Visit Common Ground's website to learn more about how Common Ground fosters an engaged community, healthy and sustainable foods, and economic justice and democracy.